Event-shape observables measured using charged particles in inclusive $Z$-boson events are presented, using the electron and muon decay modes of the $Z$ bosons. The measurements are based on an integrated luminosity of $1.1 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of proton--proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. Charged-particle distributions, excluding the lepton--antilepton pair from the $Z$-boson decay, are measured in different ranges of transverse momentum of the $Z$ boson. Distributions include multiplicity, scalar sum of transverse momenta, beam thrust, transverse thrust, spherocity, and $\mathcal{F}$-parameter, which are in particular sensitive to properties of the underlying event at small values of the $Z$-boson transverse momentum. The Sherpa event generator shows larger deviations from the measured observables than Pythia8 and Herwig7. Typically, all three Monte Carlo generators provide predictions that are in better agreement with the data at high $Z$-boson transverse momenta than at low $Z$-boson transverse momenta and for the observables that are less sensitive to the number of charged particles in the event.

We report on the results of the study of e + e − collisions at the highest PETRA energy of √ s = 31.57 GeV, using the 4π sr, electromagnetic and calorimetric detector Mark J. Based on 88 hadron events, and an integrated luminosity of 243 nb −1 we obtain R = σ (e + e − → hadrons)/ σ (e + e − → μ + μ − ) = 4.0 ± 0.5 (statistical) ± 6 (systematic). The R value, the measured thrust distribution and average spherocity show no evidence for the production of new quark flavors.

This report reviews the experimental investigation of high energy e + e − interactions by the MARK J collaboration at PETRA, the electron-positron colliding beam accelerator at DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The physics objectives include studies of several purely electromagnetic processes and hadronic final states, which further our knowledge of the nature of the fundamental constituents and of their strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions. Before discussing the physics results, the main features and the principal components of the MARK J detector are discussed in terms of design, function, and performance. Several aspects of the on-line data collection and the off-line analysis are also outlined. Results are presented on tests of quantum electrodynamics using e + e − → e + e − , μ + μ − and τ + τ − , on the measurement of R , the ratio of the hadronic to the point-like muon pair cross section, on the search for new quark flavors, on the discovery of three jet events arising from the radiation of hard noncollinear gluons as predicted by quantum chromodynamics, and on the determination of the strong coupling constant α s .

Multihadronic e+e− annihilation events at a center-of-mass energy of 29 GeV have been studied with both the original (PEP 5) Mark II and the upgraded Mark II detectors. Detector-corrected distributions from global shape analyses such as aplanarity, Q2-Q1, sphericity, thrust, minor value, oblateness, and jet masses, and inclusive charged-particle distributions including x, rapidity, p⊥, and particle flow are presented. These distributions are compared with predictions from various multihadron event models which use leading-logarithmic shower evolution or QCD matrix elements at the parton level and string or cluster fragmentation for hadronization. The new generation of parton-shower models gives, on the average, a better description of the data than the previous parton-shower models. The energy behavior of these models is compared to existing e+e− data. The predictions of the models at a center-of-mass energy of 93 GeV, roughly the expected mass of the Z0, are also presented.

In this paper, results are presented from a study of the hadronic final states in e+e− annihilation at 29 GeV. The data were obtained with the High Resolution Spectrometer (HRS) at the SLAC PEP e+e− colliding-beam facility. The results are based on 6342 selected events corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 pb−1. The distributions of the events in sphericity (S), thrust (T), and aplanarity (A) are given and compared to other e+e− data in the same energy range. We measure 〈S〉=0.130±0.003±0.010 and 〈1-T〉=0.100±0.002. The sphericity distribution is compared to sphericity measurements made for beam jets in hadronic collisions as well as jets studied in neutrino scattering. The data sample is further reduced to 4371 events with the two-jet selections, S≤0.25 and A≤0.1. The single-particle distributions in the longitudinal and transverse directions are given. For low values of the momentum fraction (z=2p/W), the invariant distribution shows a maximum at z∼0.06, consistent with a QCD expectation. The data at high Feynman x (xF) show distribution consistent with being dominated by a (1-xf)2 variation for the leading quark-meson transition. The rapidity distribution shows a shallow central minimum with a height (1/NevdNh/dY‖Y=0=2.3±0.02±0.07. The mean charged multiplicity is measured to be 〈nch〉=13.1±0.05±0.6. The mean transverse momentum relative to the thrust axis 〈pT〉 rises as a function of z to a value of 0.70±0.02 GeV/c for z≳0.3. The distributions are compared to those measured in other reactions.

We present the general properties of multihadron final states produced by e+e− annihilation at center-of-mass energies from 52 to 57 GeV in the AMY detector at the KEK collider TRISTAN. Global shape, inclusive charged-particle, and particle-flow distributions are presented. Our measurements are compared with QCD+fragmentation models that use either leading-logarithmic parton-shower evolution or QCD matrix elements at the parton level, and either string or cluster fragmentation for hadronization.

The structure of hadronic events fromZ0 decay is studied by measuring event shape variables, factorial moments, and the energy flow distribution. The distributions, after correction for detector effects and initial and final state radiation, are compared with the predictions of different QCD Monte Carlo programs with optimized parameter values. These Monte Carlo programs use either the second order matrix element or the parton shower evolution for the perturbative QCD calculations and use the string, the cluster, or the independent fragmentation model for hadronization. Both parton shower andO(α2s matrix element based models with string fragmentation describe the data well. The predictions of the model based on parton shower and cluster fragmentation are also in good agreement with the data. The model with independent fragmentation gives a poor description of the energy flow distribution. The predicted energy evolutions for the mean values of thrust, sphericity, aplanarity, and charge multiplicity are compared with the data measured at different center-of-mass energies. The parton shower based models with string or cluster fragmentation are found to describe the energy dependences well while the model based on theO(α2s calculation fails to reproduce the energy dependences of these mean values.

Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies between 45 and 202 GeV. A phenomenological analysis based on power correction models including hadron mass effects for both differential distributions and mean values is presented. Using power corrections, alpha_s is extracted from the mean values and shapes. In an alternative approach, renormalisation group invariance (RGI) is used as an explicit constraint, leading to a consistent description of mean values without the need for sizeable power corrections. The QCD beta-function is precisely measured using this approach. From the DELPHI data on Thrust, including data from low energy experiments, one finds beta_0 = 7.86 +/- 0.32 for the one loop coefficient of the beta-function or, assuming QCD, n_f = 4.75 +/- 0.44 for the number of active flavours. These values agree well with the QCD expectation of beta_0=7.67 and n_f=5. A direct measurement of the full logarithmic energy slope excludes light gluinos with a mass below 5 GeV.

The large amount of data accumulated by the TASSO detector at 35 GeV c.m. energy has been compared with the predictions of the latest generation of perturbative QCD+fragmentation models. By adjustment of the arbitrary parameters of these models, a very good description of the global properties of hadronic events was obtained. No one model gave the best description of all features of the data, each model being better than the others for some observables and worse in other quantities. We interpret these results in terms of the underlying QCD and hadronisation schemes. The trends of the data across the energy range 12.0≦W≦41.5 GeV are generally well reproduced by the models with the parameters optimised at 35 GeV.

Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined using the data taken at five different centre of mass energies above M Z with the DELPHI detector at LEP. From the event shapes, the strong coupling α s is extracted in O ( α s 2 ), NLLA and a combined scheme using hadronisation corrections evaluated with fragmentation model generators as well as using an analytical power ansatz. Comparing these measurements to those obtained at M Z , the energy dependence (running) of α s is accessible. The logarithmic energy slope of the inverse strong coupling is measured to be d α −1 s d log (E cm ) =1.39±0.34( stat )±0.17( syst ) , in good agreement with the QCD expectation of 1.27.